NEW POSTNATAL-GROWTH GRIDS FOR VERY-LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT INFANTS

Objective. To generate contemporary postnatal growth curves for hospit alized very low birth weight infants. Design. Retrospective survey. Se tting. Tertiary intensive care nursery. Patients. All surviving single ton, appropriate-for-gestational age infants with birth weight less-th an-or-equal-to 1500 g, born January 1, 1987, to May 31, 1991, who did not develop necrotizing enterocolitis (N = 205). Measurements and resu lts. Macronutrient intakes and body weights were recorded daily, with crown-heel length and occipital-frontal head circumference recorded we ekly up to 105 days of age or hospital discharge, whichever occurred f irst. Growth curves were generated for four birth weight ranges: 501 t hrough 750, 751 through 1000, 1001 through 1250, and 1251 through 1500 g. Compared to previously published growth curves, the current infant s regained birth weight more quickly and exhibited larger average dail y weight gains. These differences were most apparent in infants of low est birth weight. Conclusions. The ''premature growth grid'' construct ed by Dancis et al more than 40 years ago may no longer be a useful st andard of early postnatal growth for present-day very low birth weight , appropriate-for-gestational-age infants. The new weight curves are a more accurate reflection of current in-hospital growth trends, especi ally for infants weighing less-than-or-equal-to 1000 g at birth.